Business Intelligence

Just What Is Enterprise Business Intelligence? (Peak Performance)

Organizations typically approach business intelligence from many different perspectives. According to Chris Silbernagel, Managing Principal for the BI consultancy Exigent Partners, it's useful to talk about BI from an information, technology, and problem perspective. From an information perspective, it's necessary to understand three different points of view: the data's, the user's, and the corporation's. From the data context, enterprise BI is about access and security. To a user, BI means a single interface. For a company, BI means a single version of the "truth." From a technology perspective, BI is viewed as a single interface, vendor, or methodology. From a problem perspective, BI revolves around database size, performance, security, and user acceptance. After outlining these basic concepts of BI, Silbernagel answers some of the key questions organizations have when considering a BI initiative: What is its value? Why should the company make the investment? And how is BI better than what the company already has? Silbernagel concludes by looking at the first steps an organization can take for implementing enterprise business intelligence.

Track: Peak PerformanceMethodologies and proven practices that advance the management skills of IT professionals

Learning Objectives:

By watching this program, you will be able to:

Identify the potential value that is lost by not having an enterprise BI solution;

Identify the areas of investment for the implementation of an enterprise BI solution; and

Justify the value of completing a readiness assessment and conformance study to specifically determine the costs and benefits of an enterprise BI solution.

Content Partner:

WatchIT

Speaker / Author:

Chris Silbernagel - PresenterChris Silbernagel is Cofounder and Managing Principal, Business Intelligence, of Exigent Partners, LLC, a consultancy specializing in designing and constructing decision support systems, data marts and data warehouses. Silbernagel has architected numerous data warehouses in diverse industries, and has 20-plus years experience analyzing, designing, developing and implementing large-scale applications for customers. Silbernagel lectures frequently on data modeling, database design, mapping, transformation and migration middleware, relational/OLAP tools, front-end selection, Web-based access and systems integration and implementation, and project management. Before launching Exigent Partners in 2002 with two business partners, Silbernagel served as Vice President of Personnel, Projects and Operations for the data warehousing practice at Hourglass Systems, Inc., a consulting firm. Previously, he held management positions at Archer Decision Sciences, Inc., Rijnhaave Systems, Digital Equipment Corporation, and General Electric. Silbernagel received a B.S. degree in Building Science from Renssel'r Polytechnic Institute in 1982.